THE common cold virus is about to be put to the test as a new weapon against cancer.
Australian studies have found the Coxsackie virus can kill cancer cells in a test tube and in mice but leaves normal tissue largely unaffected.
Researchers are about to start trialling a purified form of the virus, trademarked Cavatak, in Australian patients with late-stage breast cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer who have not responded to conventional treatments or refused them.
Biomedical scientist Kathryn Skelding, of the University of Newcastle, said if the treatment proved successful, the hope was that it may eventually replace chemotherapy and radiation, which both have debilitating side effects for patients, including nausea and hair loss.
Ms Skelding, a PhD student, has been studying the effect of the virus on breast cancer in mice with help from a National Breast Cancer Foundation grant.
"What I've been able to show is that this virus ... is able to cause a reduction in tumour volumes in a mouse model of breast cancer as well as eliminate secondary tumours," she said.
Her supervisor, Darren Shafren, who has been studying the virus since the mid-1990s, said two molecules that it used to infect cells were expressed in higher numbers on malignant cancer cells than on normal tissue.
Associate Professor Shafren stressed much more research was necessary before scientists could say whether Cavatak offered significant hope to cancer patients.
He said that initially Cavatak may be used in combination with conventional therapies if early human trials showed promise.
Two hospital trials about to begin are designed mainly to assess the safety of the potential new therapy.
The trials will be funded by publicly listed company Viralytics Ltd
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1897113,0050.htm
"Although researchers have known for some time that viruses can kill tumour cells, they have previously concentrated on injecting the treatment directly into cancers.
But this will not work if the cancer is inaccessible or has spread throughout the body.
The solution provided by the new research is to mask the virus from the body's immune system during its journey to the tumour, said Leonard Seymour, a professor of gene therapy at Oxford University who is heading the trial.
The virus is given a polymer coat before it is injected, so that the immune system does not immediately start trying to destroy it, Seymour said.
When it reaches a tumour, it exploits the fact that cancer suppresses the body's immune system in the immediate area. The virus can start replicating and overwhelm and destroy the cancer cells.
The therapy would be especially useful for secondary cancers, called metastases, which sometimes spread around the body after the first tumour appears.
The two viruses likely to be used in the first trials are adenovirus, which normally causes a cold-like illness, and vaccinia, which is used in the vaccine against smallpox."
Now we know the real reason why people say 'Bless You' after someone sneezes and spreads a cold virus around..!!!
but reading the article further... eeek... trying to genetically alter other viruses to realise their potential...has me quaking in my boots!!!!